CAIN
A downloadable game
Humanity is cursed, host to a roiling psychic sea barely understood or controlled, a phenomenon arising purely from the darkest portions of the human soul. While most humans are blissfully unaware of its presence, others are more sensitive. When it grows wild in these hosts, SINS appear, terrifying supernatural monsters that are anathema to reality itself.
CAIN is the solution, the global supranational shadow organization dedicated solely to the hunting and execution of sins. It’s mission is clear, its purpose steadfast. Is there anything better than a good hunt? Just think, you’re all set to slaughter to your heart’s content.
YOU are an exorcist, a powerful psychic soldier and tool of CAIN, honed and wielded for one purpose:
WIPE OUT THE STAIN
From Tom Bloom (Magnagothica Maleghast/Lancer RPG): a new narrative role playing game about playing psychic death soldiers hunting monstrosities made of human trauma. So it goes.
Includes:
- Rules for making exorcists, powerful psychic soldiers on a campaign of extermination. Nascent monstrosities themselves, they must struggle against the limits of their own expanding powers and bodies.
- Rules for creating sins, psychic abominations created when their hosts' latent psychic powers burst free of their body, spurred on by trauma and suffering. Unraveling the mysteries behind their birth and the tragic circumstances of their hosts can weaken them and be used as a weapon in the final confrontation, lending equal weight to investigation and combat.
- Rules for running hunts: tense investigations that culminate in a climactic execution scene inside of the lair of the beast
- Character sheets and hunt sheets for easy organization
- Over 150 pages of insanity, art, and stickers with an aesthetic inspired by lo-fi manga, visual collage, and barber beats album covers.
- There's two versions of the text to download, one with embedded fonts and another without (I recommend embedded)
Slash, and slash, and SLASH AWAY. UNTIL IT IS DONE.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Quick update to fix font issues40 days ago
Comments
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Can we expect a 1.1 version with the typos fixed?
Really badass game and visual style as usual, but the PDF could be organised a bit better. My personal opinion is that the character-building stuff (skills, Blasphemies, Agenda) should be all together at the start of the PDF, as it's kind of annoying to hop back and forth between the various categories trying to determine what's "thematically appropriate" for a character with such-and-such Agenda.
i a have some questions about "Bind", like what kind of sin can it be, how big can it start as, does it CAT levelup with you, can it be a LORD looking sin, can it get or use weapons and have sin powers? Does it use you stats or does it have its own (meaning if i have bad stats for fighting, is the sin also bad at fighting?) I also do not like that i have to give my action to my sin for it to do something, not saying i want to do 2 thing at once, but if it could help me or my team just by giving a +1 well i also hit the big bad boss, i would be happy with that.
Also your passive to bind sins has no real saying what you can and cannot bind, what is the check and what type of sin can i bind, if i do bind it, do i get to use their powers as well? Why keep your starting sin if you can go out and bind better ones. Does the only thing on bind for CAT just effect forbidden spirit or am i not reading it right?
Would love to see BIND with a some more clear guide lines so i can quick rule or tell someone what they can and cannot do. Any help is welcomed.
This is just my view on bind
It is a nonspecific sin type, that takes the form of an animal unless you use a power. Its capabilities without using your powers to enhance it are CAT 0. It does not have any stats, instead using your skills. It cannot have sin abilities. If you are bad at fighting there are one or two BIND abilities that will still give your sin an edge in combat, but it costs a psyche burst and isnt permanent. Your passive does actually specify that you have a single bound sin at the start of the game, and has no actual rules text discussing binding additional sins (likely because it would seriously fuck up game flow to allow exorcists to bind sins instead of executing them at the end of a hunt).
There is a homebrew project in the works to revamp binding, I am not sure the progress on it. I have played with a binder in my party and its really not that bad as is, and the rules are pretty clear in my opinion. It lacks the Fushiguro flavor that I think it deserves, but as is it is functional enough for me to use and flexible enough for me to make on the spot rulings and homebrew new ideas.
It would be cool if you released a more print friendly version
Yeah, I can already see the face of my copy center employee when I arrive with this..
I ran the game yesterday and its a blast. I noticed its not in the influences so if you haven't checked it out you should watch Mononoke, it has a similar vibe to the investigations in this game and its fire. I love the game, keep making cool stuff man
Are there any plans to make this into a physical edition in the future? If so, I would absolutely want to get a copy if just for the awesome artwork alone. It would also make game sessions a bit easier if a laptop was not available.
Could we get a single page version together with spreads? It is kind of unwieldy on mobile device.
Rad game!
I have no idea where submitting comments on game balance would go, but the Forbidden Spirit power seems wildly out of line with every other combat ability. The five other powers which you might use to attack a Sin directly - Severance, Fury, Sabre, Fling and Bullet - all cost essentially 1 psyche burst in exchange for 1 attack done at CAT scale that can get on average 0-2 extra dice.
These act as upgrades over the Blast power does an attack at CAT scale, but has a chance to fail and lacks range or dice boosts. Fair enough.
Meanwhile Forbidden Spirit, in exchange for 1 psyche burst, will give you that much - a CAT scale attack with +1D - but will then keep attacking, for as long as the exorcist is willing to take whatever stress it's taking. It also gets one free chance to ignore stress.
A CAT 5 Exorcist with Fling can toss around 8 eighteen-wheelers but then have a SIN overflow, while a CAT 5 Binder can tell their pokemon to toss 8 eighteen-wheelers and unless someone shoots it with an anti-tank missile it only costs one psyche burst.
Is there going to be a single page pdf release?
Spreads are really hard to read on mobile
This if a very cool looking game, I'm obsessed already. Two errors I noticed, first is that the Edit page is missing a table of contents entry, and second is that on the Sin Marks spread under "4. Arms or Hands" it says "split hand or harm" where I think it should say "arm".
Love what ive read so far of this game just hoping we get some more printer friendly versions of character sheets soon
Is this a solo RPG or meant to be played with a group?
It's a group RPG. Like a lot of games, there's a GM (called the Admin) who runs the scenario, with player characters overcoming the challenges set forth by the Admin.
Given the right tools, most group RPGs can be soloed. I'll have to read the rules to see what would be a good fit (Just bought the game.) Sight unseen, Mythic GME is always a good call. Because I'm a tarot junkie, I'd also consider Four Houses in Chaos, if I found a deck that matches the theme.
if it's suited to play solo, please do share!! im very new to ttrpgs and am not good at "adapting" rules to fit solo play. thanks :)
Are you familiar with oracles and their use? They are GM emulators and the way they work is not by adapting the rules so much as adding procedures to help in GMing yourself. (Most solo play is a matter of wearing multiple hats for player and GM.) Let me throw out a few links and you can check those out and see if the idea clicks for you.
CRGE - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/145426/crge-conjectural-roleplaying-gm-e... (pwyw)
FHiC - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/392514/four-houses-in-chaos (free)
Thank you this is so helpful!!
I am not experienced with PDF design so I don't know how much of an ask this is
but is there a way to have a light version of the rulebook so I can print it without using a ton of ink on the white on black page style?
please and thank you, totally get it if unfeasible
In the CAINsheets.pdf the CAT scale is blank. Also, could you make them individual pages, since printing them out is a huge pain otherwise and leads to them being all blurry since I have to use screenshots.
you can print individual pages of a pdf from the print screen by selecting pages, custom, on windows. Or on mac you can open the pdf in the preview app, View, Thumbnails, Command-click the thumbnails of the pages you want to print. I hope this solves your issue, and I hope this improves your experience with future pdfs :D
The issue was that print screen ruined the fidelity for printing. I used gimp to edit the pdf and that worked well.
I have a small question regarding CATegory scaling of powers. Blast says that it's strength scales with CAT. Does the strength of powers like Severance or Fury also scale with CAT regarding the rules of category difference, or only the size/area part of those powers gets scaled up? If I try to cut a fly-sized category 7 sin with a CAT 1 Severance power, does it become impossible (more than 3 categories higher) or is it a normal/advantageous roll (heavy furniture size vs fly size)?
I think that generally size of sin scales with CAT. obviously subject to Admin discretion, so you can definitely have a fly-sized cat-7 sin.
But if you have a cat-7 sin with the size of a fly it will still have durability commensurate with CAT. considering cat-7 is durable enough to make a cat-4 attack (size/destruction on par with a large vehicle) ineffective it seems that no cat-1 attack, regardless of relative size, will be effective. You could play it as strength of psychic phenomena.
Going from the media that inspired CAIN, for example JJK: Gojo (arguably cat-7) can no-sell / tank any sort of attack because it can't hit him or make an impact on his Limitless defenses. It doesn't matter if a cat-1 attack is bigger than him, since his phenomena make it impossible to make a lasting impact in the first place.
A little rambling, but hope this helps. The lack of hard rules wrt power scaling make CAIN really interesting in this respect. Narrative obviously more impactful than hard stat sheets.
Will there ever be an editable PDF soon or am I simply just not well-versed with using them?
In the unofficial CAIN discord server there is a link to a google sheets document that has fully editable hunt, sin, and exorcist sheets if you want something useable online.
may i see the server?
This link will take you there: https://discord.gg/BpyAUzup
thanks
Would you be able to send the link again? The above is expired
https://discord.gg/YGmp47cj
In case someone wants a quick way to get a sin set up here's a prompt generator https://o-o.ro/sin-generator/
Hey Tom! Some Feedback on the pdf reading:
-Even after the update, some of the credit cards effects are a bit hard to read on my end (the "cut in the card" letters that play on the transparency of the layer).
-The double spread is very nice, and I approve of it, it helps make the book pop a lot more, it introduces a problem with the page count where the pdf readers don't match the actual pages they're on (since functionally every page is 2 pages, but the pdf reader counts them as 1 page).
I'm not sure if I'm completely blind, but when reading through the pdf did I miss the recommended count for player groups? Like in ICON where it's 2-5 players counting the DM?
I find the PDF extremely hard to navigate due to the amount of headers on the same priority level. And some headers make no sense. Like why are there separate headers for each word in "Running CAIN".
I am a gorilla wielding a tiny hammer
Thank you for the reply.
I feel you. I just got done finishing a CoC scenario for Miskatonic Repository. learning to do layout, editing and so on was fun but man my editor must hate me for all that work haha
Just looking at the preview material, I'm unsure if SABRE or Inner Furnace Meltdown ignore the stress overflow rules. Also kinda confused as to whether VOID's stronger settings include the weaker ones. (Wouldn't an implosion strong enough to pull in small objects also create a fairly deafening thunderclap, given that guns do and they have the benefit of a barrel to concentrate force? But the obvious read is that only the strongest is loud enough to bother espers.)
Are there plans for a physical copy? i'd love to add this to my collection.
You tease me! I thought Abaddon had made a video game. Or maybe I should incorporate these elements into my own..
in any case, a hunt is underway...
chainsaw man meets generator rex meets madoka magica presented as a found footage and monster of the week action horror piece. ridiculously flavourful and dripping with character both in concept and in practice. proper nouns like Divine Agony and Nail of Abel paint your job as that of the champions of God in His Heaven- and isn't His work so beautiful?
WIPE OUT THE STAIN.
missions needed to survive to increase CAT is different on the character sheet then what is described on page 45.
This looks rad af, but I do have to ask - are folks allowed to make campaigns/content for this game ala Lancer for sale or should we leave it be?
tom mentioned in the discord that itll likely have a 3rd party license & "For now though consider any of my work to have the general same license as lancer - ie generally permissive"
Awwww YEAH.
So anyway, this might actually be peak. Reminds me of Madoka Magica meets JJK!
I have a doubt about the stress mechanics , if i have 4 stress and i take 3 more (having a max of 6)do i take and injury or i stay at 6 stress ?
i'm pretty sure you just go to 6, and you gain an injury if you take any more stress
He doesn't miss, I think this'll be a much easier sell to my friends with how light the system is.
Made a character sheet in google docs if anyone wants to play online and use it, just make a copy and edit on your own! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lfxmpF0k8aK3rGPUXzfsJf7SQGERD-tYxG4UNyPHQU8/...
EDIT: Made a GM sheet too: https://docs.google.com/document/d/106-nc5OJ_saQl1hGQylGEHl4kVQoH2iEKB2E7Uw6DAs/...
EDIT 2: Here is a Talisman guide if you are using Roll20: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJPRPgN2C6hhGbxvevbmYoM7KTqmQbIiNW-bMTpNPJw/...
You are a goddamn hero.
These are fantastic. Thank you so much
What's the intended path for if a character dies in a mission, given all the consequences/ different rates of growth characters can have? Having them make a starting Exorcist feels like it could make balance very awkward, but if it's not a starting exorcist, what resources do they have to start with?
You could look at average CAT of the party and do that CAT or CAT-1.
Additionally, you could credit a certain amount of XP and scrip based on average of the party or average of mission performance so far.
Alternatively you could work out expected XP/scrip per completed mission and scale that to the campaign. For example, you might expect that a character will at least survive, do one agenda item, and take one injury per mission. That gives 3 xp per mission. For scrip, let's assume they make 3-7 scrip per mission on average due to body retrieval, mission outcome, etc. That's a solid pool of resources they can convert into a good new character sheet.
I think someone else mentioned, but the CATs on the player sheet are blank - I think it's due to white text on a white background
I'll try to fix this in an update. You can open it in firefox and it should work ok.
I'll try that out, thanks! I was opening it in chrome and on my phone pdf viewer "ReadEra" if that helps.
Also a far more minor editing thing I just noticed, the fourth question for the toad's severe attack isn't part of the list, it's just in it's own paragraph.
The game/art is awesome - I'm looking forward to running it with friends (and would definitely buy a hardcopy if there were enough demand for you to do a print run).
OOOO this is feisty, sold. I might need to rearrange the individual Agenda powers and Blasphemies as cards for the players to draw from (draw to pick one) to prevent character creation from being too overwhelming. Overall, very good. The Sins are basically Administrator Playbooks with custom moves like in Band of Brothers which (combined with the investigation structure) looks like it will make the running of the game very smooth.
Would love a version with pages instead of just spreads/somehow compress to a lower file size. I literally cannot open this file on my phone.
for the BLAST blasphemy, it says that the strength of the ability scales with CAT. How exactly does that work? Do I roll more dice at higher CAT?
I dont believe there are damage dice in this game. The CAT scaling I believe changes the dice roll itself. A CAT1 blast affecting a CAT 4 sin? Well, it might make it so the roll is hard on top of being risky, or even impossible unless the group finds some weakness. But a CAT 4 blast against a CAT 4 sin will still be risky but wont be hard.
You do roll more dice at higher CAT. Blast is a PSYCHE roll, and psyche is a special action score equal to half your CAT (rounded up).
Because each success counts as one slash when you're acting against a talisman (including the sin's execution talisman), you would be dealing more damage on average the higher your CAT (and therefore psyche) is.
Gave it a read through and absolutely love everything about this game and setting.
I did notice the CAT table on the CAINsheets document is white font on white background, making it look blank.
Looks great, rules look quite interesting.
Pg. 39, 5A, tension, last line, the lower part of „pg.“ is cut off by the image
300+Mb file for the book and 13Mb the character sheet? x_x
I would love to see lighter weight files available for download for those of us who will read it in mobile devices.
Also, a PDF divided by pages instead of spreads. ^_^U
This book has so much art in it and I am basically like a gorilla playing with a tiny hammer with layout
Don't worry, take your time! ^^
Sounds awesome, no community copies (I don't mind, just curious as I see that a lot.)
This is gorgeous and radical, looking forward to sinking my teeth into this over the next couple of days. Are there any plans to do a stripped-down text-only version, similar to the Bare Bones Edition of MORK BORG?
Yes, I'll be releasing a 'Graceless' version at some point
That's perfect, thank you. ^^